There is a need for an inexpensive, easy to erect, light weight, and reliable tile support arrangement for buildings.
Inclined roofs of, say, domestic buildings commonly incorporate heavy, shaped, baked clay tiles supported on successive rows of timber battens that extend between rafters of the roof. The use of such tiles together with the timber battens exerts considerable weight on the rafters, which must be of a sufficient strength (and size) to sustain the weight over a long term. The use of timber battens and rafters of sufficient load bearing size also places a drain on timber resources.
Known tile support arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,961 to Gibbs, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,542,596 to Waddington, as well as in Japanese Patent No. 2,248,563 to Sasaki.
However, whilst the aforementioned arrangements use non-timber battens or batten-like structures, they are somewhat complex to assemble and their many large and small component parts make them costly to manufacture and difficult to repair.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a tile support arrangement for supporting flat plate tiles on an inclined roof or against the outer walls of a building that overcomes, or at least substantially ameliorates, the disadvantages of the aforementioned prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tile support arrangement for inclined roofs that does not employ timber battens and requires rafters of lighter weight than are presently used for clay tile roofs.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a tile support arrangement for the outer walls of a building that can be used to provide an aesthetically appealing, tiled wall appearance.